Early Cambridge Lawns plat map shows historic "university" street names

Seems few city residents are aware of the history of the Cambridge Lawns subdivision development plans in the early 1920s and its relationship to the founding of the nearby University of Miami campus in 1926, evidenced by the original street names of our neighborhood as seen in this early plat map of the canal and surrounding streets.

The map shows that when the Cambridge Lawns subdivision was envisioned in the early 1920s, the streets were named with a university theme in mind. We’ve posted about this previously, 57th Street was once Harvard Avenue, with the Cambridge Lawns theme extending south of the canal into the rest of the subdivision, with street names like Princeton Boulevard and Clemson Avenue.

But, the planned completion of Cambridge Lawns came to a halt with the bursting of the real estate bubble following the "Great Miami Hurricane" of 1926. Building in the subdivision did not restart until the 1950s when the larger lots and homes, many in the new Modern ranch style, were built on the south side of the canal along SW 57th Drive and SW 58th Street.

UPDATE: Cambridge Lawns historic markers: $8,768 worth

City Commissioners will be considering a Resolution on the agenda at tonight's Commission meeting to spend $ 8,768.34 of South Miami taxpayer dollars for stone markers to designate the Cambridge Lawns Historic District.

The cost comes as a surprise to Cambridge Lawns neighbors, given that when queried awhile back the City's Acting Planning Director Sandy Youkilis said that there was to be no charge for the stone markers, which were apparently being underwritten by an outside organization.

City Commissioners might want to delve into how the decision to spend $ 8,768.34 was arrived at, if all residents of the Cambridge Lawns area have had a chance to preview the design of these markers going up in their neighborhood, and the breakout of this amount, i.e. who is/has provided and reviewed the design, how much is to be spent on design, materials and labor, etc.

Here's the full text of the Resolution being considered:

A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF SOUTH MIAMI, FLORIDA, AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE AN AGREEMENT WITH URBAN STONEWORKS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION AND INSTALLATION OF CAMBRIDGE LAWNS HISTORIC MARKERS IN THE AMOUNT OF $ 8,768.34 TO BE CHARGED AS FOLLOWS: $8,000.00 TO THE CITY’S PLANNING DEPARTMENT CONTRACTUAL SERVICES ACCOUNT NUMBER 001-1620-524-3450 AND $768.34 TO THE CITY’S PLANNING DEPARTMENT PROFESSIONAL SERVICES ACCOUNT NUMBER 001-1620-524-3100; PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE.

We look forward to a full discussion of this Resolution by the Commission. The full revised agenda for tonight's meeting is online here.

UPDATE: At the 02/03 City Commission meeting, this Resolution was removed from consideration on the Consent agenda, due to the vendor (Urban Stoneworks) having withdrawn its bid. City Manager Ajibola Balogun told Commisioners that the project is to be put out to bid again and brought back to the City Commission at a later date.

FURTHER UPDATE: The markers were again put out to bid, with proposals due back within one week on Thursday Feb. 12th. The second bid invitation is online, here.

Flora and fauna: the Tropical Almond (terminala catappa)

It's that time of year, mid-winter in South Florida and the temperatures dipping enough at night to turn the leaves of the tropical almond trees in Cambridge Lawns a bright red before they drop en masse to the streets and lawns and into Broad Canal.

The Tropical Almond (scientific name, Terminalia catappa) is another of those non-native trees that the neighborhood iguanas and squirrels and our local and migratory birds are crazy about.

Also called "sea almonds," the trees are native to an area that extends from India through Southeast Asia and New Guinea to Northern Australia. A flowering tree, with large oval, leathery leaves that turn dark reddish-brown before dropping, the almonds can grow as high as 90-feet if left untrimmed.

You can learn more about the Tropical Almond online at wikipedia, here.

Other links of interest:

Tropical Audubon Society
TREEmendous Miami
Miami-Dade 'Adopt a Tree'

Recyclables pickup, public holidays and rocket science

It's Monday again, the alternating Mondays when every other week our neighborhood is supposed to have our recyclables picked up in the new wheeled-carts provided by Miami-Dade County.

Of course, we've now waited a full month since the last pickup because the trucks did not circulate on Monday Jan. 19th -- a federal holiday. No problem with the occasional holiday, except the trucks didn't double up and pickup recyclables the day after or the day after.

And, checking our calendars it looks like the missed pickups on Mondays that are falling on public holidays are not going to be a one-off occurrence. In fact, it turns out that for the remainder of 2009 our neighborhood could well be skipped for recyclables pickup on four out of five Mondays that are designated as federal/public holidays!

Cambridge Lawns wonders who is the "Einstein" over at Miami-Dade County who rescheduled our recyclables pickups from the convenient Wednesdays -- when no other trucks picking up household garbage or yard clippings are circulating through our neighborhoods -- to alternating Mondays on a schedule that translates into our recyclables pickup being skipped during 2009 on the following holidays:

Monday, Jan. 19th - Martin Luther King Day
Monday, Feb. 16th - Presidents' Day
Monday, May 25th - Labor Day
Monday, Oct. 12th - Columbus Day

That means that unless the schedule is modified, on at least four out of 12 months this year the neighbors in Cambridge Lawns may be forced to squeeze a full months' worth of recyclables into the 35-gallon carts designed for two week's worth of recyclables that were provided to us by the County.

Come on, Miami-Dade, it's not like this is "rocket science" ... what WERE you thinking of when you devised this schedule?

Flora and fauna: the Moorhen (Gallinula Chloropus)

Conversation with a mother and her young daughter at the canalside wooden railing in Brewer Park recently turned to a small black bird with a bright red crested beak.

It seems lots of folks think of this bird as some kind of duck, though most realize its beak doesn't look much like a duck's bill and that there's something different about this waterbird. And, they're right.

A migratory bird that frequents our Broad Canal this time of year, this bird is called the Florida Moorhen (also referred to as "Common Moorhen," or Gallinule after the scientific name Gallinula Chloropus).

In fact, the Moorhen is a member of the "Rail" family ("Coots" also belong to this family of birds) and although it shares wetlands and moorlands habitat with ducks, appears to swim similarly to a duck and also feeds on grasses, leaves, small insects and snails, there are two differentiating characteristics that are readily visible.

The first can be seen while the birds are swimming in the water -- they clearly don't have a duck's bill, but rather a narrow, pointed yellow beak topped by a bright tred frontal crest. Second, once out of the water, their yellow legs and feet are easily distinguished from ducks' webbed feet by their four long toes. The lack of webbing helps moorhens from getting tangled in grasses and weeds when paddling and stepping about in shallow wetlands.

Moorhens can be heard from a distance, their low grunts turning to sharp “kurr’uk” calls if a human or predator gets too close to them or their springtime nests under low scrub along the shoreline. The local Florida Gallinule variety also can be found in the Antilles island chain in the Caribbean, from Cuba to Jamaica and Haiti, and is therefore also sometimes called the Antillean Common Moorhen.

Lots more about the Moorhen or Gallinule is available online here and here.

And, if you're interested in birds, don't forget that we're extremely fortunate to have in South Miami the offices of the Tropical Audubon Society, located at the Doc Thomas House, a county-designated historic site, on three acres of subtropical land at 5530 Sunset Drive.

South Miami pledges carbon-neutrality for city

South Miami Vice-Mayor Brian Beasley and newly-elected Commissioner Valerie Newman joined this week with Mayor Horace Feliu to pass by a 3/2 vote a Resolution that will make the City "carbon-neutral" by the year 2030.

Resolution No. 09-09-12818, adopted at the Commission's Jan. 20th meeting, reads:

A RESOLUTION OF THE MAYOR AND CITY COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF SOUTH MIAMI, FLORIDA ADOPTING A PROPOSED WORK PROGRAM PREPARED BY THE GREEN TASK FORCE WHICH WILL RESULT IN THE CITY OF SOUTH MIAMI BECOMING CARBON-NEUTRAL BY 2030; PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE.

Backed up by six initiatives recommended by the city's Green Task Force, the Resolution is in keeping with the State of Florida guidelines for municipalities to adopt the year 2030 as a date for becoming carbon-neutral.

Congratulations to our commissioners on this first step toward making South Miami "The GREEN City of Pleasant Living"!

Flora and fauna: the Australian Pines (Casuarina glauca)

The Cambridge Lawns neighborhood is distinguished by the signature evergreen trees that line the canal between Brewer Park and SW 62nd Avenue, visible from all approaches to the neighbhorhood. This graceful shade tree, growing to a height of as much as 70 feet and with long branches that sway in the wind, is commonly called the Australian Pine (also, "She-Oak"), while its scientific name is Casuarina -- so-called because its foliage was thought to resemble the feathers of the cassowary bird of the tree's native Australia.

Introduced to Florida before 1924, in recent years, the Casuarinas have been the target of criticism, chiefly it seems because they're "non-native" and considered "invasive" and also because they're susceptible to damage from high winds, presenting a potential storm hazard in hurricane season. Both both the non-native and storm-hazard charges can be levied against any number of other large tree species in Miami, including the voluminous tropical almonds that grow profusely on Cambridge Lawns properties and along both sides of the canal.

For some reason, however, the Casuarinas are singled out for all the "bad press," with some overlooking their valuable role as habitat for the neighborhood's abundant animal and bird life.

There are actually three types of Casuarina in South Florida and the trees along the Broad Canal are the seedless Casuarina glauca, reproducing by shooting up suckers from around its base -- the reason they were originally planted along Miami-Dade drainage canals to help stabilize the soil, which is certainly the case along Broad Canal. That puts to rest the myth that these trees "spread their seeds" to other Miami-Dade waterways by dropping them into the canal, occasionally given as a pretext for wholesale felling of large stands of the trees.

There's another prevalent myth about the trees: that the Casuarina "needles" deposit a chemical in the soil that keeps competing plants from growing. Again, not true. More likely is a simpler explanation that ground cover and shrubs tend to be crowded out by the trees’ dense shade and extensive roots.

Even so, that doesn't seem to be the case along Broad Canal. As a walk along SW 57 Drive and SW 58 Street over to Brewer Park demonstrates, there are no shortage of other trees growing side-by-wide with the Australian Pines, including native Gumbo Limbo, a few native Mahogany trees and the ever-present almonds.

As for the birds, a glance upward into the branches of the trees any evening shows that the native and non-native species alike simply love the Casuarinas that line the Broad Canal and that without them the birdlife in Cambridge Lawns would be far less abundant than it is today.

Other links of interest:
Tropical Audubon Society
TREEmendous Miami
Miami-Dade 'Adopt a Tree'

Note: This is the first in what we hope will be an ongoing series about the trees and birdlife of the Cambridge Lawns neighborhood, particularly along and around the Broad Canal.

Explore the M-Path bike-ped link through South Miami

Cambridge Lawns bicycle enthusiasts interested in linking up to the "M-Path" bike route that runs along US1 from Pinecrest through South Miami and Coral Gables to Brickell, might want to attend the upcoming Explore the M-Path slide talk being given by Erik Tullberg, member of the Miami-Dade Bicycle-Pedestrian Advisory Committee and secretary of the Green Mobility Network.

For details, contact the Green Mobility Network through their site. Lots more M-Path news and views at The M-Path to Enlightenment blog, which has great links to other bicycle mobility sites for Miami-Dade. We've linked to the Green Mobility Network under "Environment" on the right-hand column of Cambridge Lawns.

Don't forget! Special election Tuesday Jan. 13th at SoMi City Hall

Tuesday Jan. 13th is your chance to make your voice heard and cast a vote to fill the vacant seat on the South Miami City Commission.

The polling place is South Miami City Hall and the polls are open all day long from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Be sure to cast your vote for the candidate of your choice: Valerie Newman, Javier Baños, Shawn Crews, Frank Cuzzocrea or Levy Kelly.

Cambridge Lawns has received doorknob fliers and door-to-door visits from several of the candidates, yard signs have appeared in the last week and cable Channel 77 has been running the two public debates among the candidates that took place on Jan. 2nd and Jan. 5th.

Official notice of the election has been posted at the City's website.

New recycling carts, curbside pickup schedule for Cambridge Lawns

Miami-Dade County delivered new recycling carts to the Cambridge Lawns neighborhood this past weekend, replacing the green and blue recyling bins with one large cart on wheels, now picked up every other Monday starting this past Monday Jan. 5th (next pickup, Monday Jan. 19th).

The new carts are not quite the bright-blue pictured here, but rather a very dark blue -- actually a little easier on the eye.

Good news is that they've given us a "one-stop-shop" approach, with all recyclables going into one cart, and the containers have lids -- keeping pesky critters from messing about and stopping spillover from the previously open bins. And the carts are large enough so that they should hold everything gathered over a two week period -- and there's an option to go for a larger size if you're a big user of all the items eligible for recycling.

And, what might those be? Well, distributed with the new carts were fliers and reminder labels to past onto the lid of the carts that give clear indications of what items are and are not eligible for recycling.

It's "Yes" to paper products, collapsed cardboard, narrow-necked plastic containers, drink and juice cartons, glass and metal food and beverage containers. No batteries, chemicals, medical waste and pharmaceuticals, appliances, electronics or household garbage.

The County has a web page here with detailed information. Of course, as of this posting the video demo link is not working and the really nice tool they've developed to look up your recycling day isn't yet fully functional.

But, hey ... what's important is that they seem to be serious about recycling. And, by the way, check out their Quick Facts About Recycling flier -- interesting tid-bits on the positive impact of going green, especially the one on recycling all the phone books in America each year and saving 650,000 tons of paper per annum!

Don't forget! Special Jan. 13th election for City Commission seat

Don't forget the Jan. 13th special election called by the City of South Miami, giving you a chance to make your voice heard and cast a vote to fill the seat on the South Miami City Commission left vacant by the resignation of commissioner Randy Wiscombe.

Last night marked an interesting public debate on the issues among four of the five candidates running for the vacant seat.

Present at a two-hour evening forum hosted by the South Miami Homeowners Association at the Elks Lodge were candidates Valerie Newman, Javier Banos, Frank Cuzzocrea and Shawn Crews; candidate Levy Kelly was not present.

Official notice of the election has been posted at the City's website.

News reports about the election can be read online at the Miami Herald website:
» Commission candidates detail plans for South Miami

» South Miami to televise city commission debates

The second of the two debates will be hosted Monday by the Chamber South and, as noted in the above Herald article, you'll be able to watch the debates on Channel 77 between now and election day to see which of the candidates you think should get your vote!

New era for Cambridge Lawns website

We're opening a new era for the Cambridge Lawns website, re-launching with this post after quite a long time in dormant mode. We were here ... just not posting!

Now, it's time to gear up the website as there's more than a little going on in our community again. One of the things we've done is to add some new functionality through a "Share This" widget you'll see at the bottom of each post, allowing you to share the post with your own network of friends, family, colleagues or neighbors via a wide variety of social networking or online bookmarking sites. You're also able to e-mail the post to anyone using the "Share This" icon below -- just choose the "email" tab when the sharing box pops up.

So, sit back and enjoy ... or better yet, don't sit back but do get up off your chair and go for a walk around our beautiful neighborhood. See the trees, enjoy the varied bird life, spot an occasional iguana and watch the turtles and other waterlife diving into the deep of the Broad Canal ...

Cambridge Lawns - Welcome ... and, welcome back!

It's that time of year, again! We're in the midst of the late-summer tropical season, some residents have left and new arrivals are moving in as local schools and the University ready to open the classrooms later this month for the new school year.

Those who are new to the Cambridge Lawns neighborhood can always scroll through some of the past postings on this site to learn about such useful things as the city's schedule for pickup of garbage, recyclables and tree and yard clippings.

There's also information at this site for those interested in the history of the Cambridge Lawns neighborhood and where it got its name, or the city of South Miami's declaration of the Historic District on the north side of Brewer Canal, or background and information on our own 'pocket park' in the Cambridge Lawns neighborhood, Brewer Park.

Or, residents can simply peruse the right-hand column for useful links to information about local public transportation, news websites, cultural and entertainment opportunities right here in Cambridge Lawns' own back yard ... and more.

For those of you who are new to the neighborhood ... welcome! And, for those who are coming back after your summer vacation, welcome back!

Have you 'Googled' Cambridge Lawns lately?

If so, you'll find our neighborhood listed near the top of more than 1.8 million hits when you put 'Cambridge Lawns' into the Google search window.

The very first hit, at Wikipedia (the online free encyclopedia), details the location, history, architectural styles and some of the flora and fauna of our neighborhood.

Also listed on the first two pages of the Google search results are some references to:

• Cambridge, England, with nice photos of the manicured lawns (aka, 'the backs') at Cambridge University;


• Mentions of our Cambridge Lawns Historic District in online City of South Miami Historic Preservation Board minutes; and,


• Other interesting hits, including a Wikipedia entry for the City of South Miami.

What about other search engines? Anybody tried Yahoo!, Lycos, Altavista? How about meta-search engine Dogpile? ... Others??